e expression of triumph in her smile of greeting.
Possibly neither Thomas Savine nor Geoffrey would have understood the
meaning of the smile had they seen it, but Helen read it, and it was
with the very faintest bend of her head that she acknowledged
Thurston's salutation.

Geoffrey was silent after they had driven by, but Millicent, who seemed
to recover her spirits, chatted gayly and even said flattering things
of Miss Savine.

Meantime Helen felt confused, hurt and angry. It was true that she had
rejected Thurston's suit, but she had found his loyalty pleasant, and
had believed implicitly in his rectitude. Now a hot color rose to her
temples as she remembered that it was the second time she had seen him
under circumstances which suggested that he had transferred the homage
offered her to a married woman. She felt the insult as keenly as if he
had struck her. The Dominion had not progressed so far in one
direction as the great republic to the south of it, neither are
friendships or flirtations of the kind looked upon as leniently as they
are in tropical colonies, and there was a good deal of the Puritan in
Helen Savine.

"Well, I'm--just rattled. That's Mrs. Leslie!" remarked Thomas Savine.
"Thurston goes straight and steady, but what in the name of----"

Mrs. Savine, whose one weakness was medicine, flashed a warning glance
at him, and hastened to answer, perhaps for the benefit of Helen who
came up just then.

"There is not a straighter man in the Dominion, and one could stake
their last cent on the honor of Geoffrey Thurston," she declared.
"From several things I've heard, I've settled that's just a dangerous
woman."

Helen heard, and, knowing her friendship for the young engineer,
guessed her aunt's motive. The explanation, in any case, would not
have improved the position much, for if the woman were utterly
unprincipled, which she could well believe, why should the man who had,
of his own will, pledged himself to her?--but she flushed again as she
refused to follow that line of thought further. Nevertheless, she
clenched a little hand in a manner that boded ill for Thurston when
next he sought speech with her. Afterwards she endeavored to treat the
incident with complete indifference, and succeeded in deceiving her
uncle only, for in spite of her efforts, her face and carriage
expressed outraged dignity. Her aunt was not in the least deceived,
and her eyes twinkled now and then as she chattered o